Name: Spanish Beef
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons butter; 1 slice onion; 2 tablespoons flour; 1 cup chopped boiled beef; 1 cup canned tomatoes; 1 cup beef stock; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spanish Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

Melt and brown the butter in a pan.
Add the onion and cook until brown.
Stir in the flour and cook for a minute.
Add the chopped boiled beef, canned tomatoes, and beef stock.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Finish and serve

Heat thoroughly and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds richness and flavour as it browns in the pan.
Flour: Thickens the liquid into a sauce once cooked briefly with the fat.
Chopped boiled beef: Provides the main meat and substance of the dish.
Canned tomatoes: Adds acidity and body to the sauce.
Beef stock: Supplies liquid and savoury beef flavour to the sauce.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, flour, beef, pepper):

Potatofits better
Chivefits better
Leekfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, flour, beef, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.